Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But, say they, Porphyry tells us that the soul, in order to\r\nbe blessed, must escape connection with every kind of body.\r\nIt does not avail, therefore, to say that the future body shall\r\nbe incorruptible, if the soul cannot be blessed till delivered\r\nfrom every kind of body. But in the book above mentioned\r\nI have already sufficiently discussed this. This one thing only\r\nwill I repeat,—let Plato, their master, correct his writings, and\r\nsay that their gods, in order to be blessed, must quit their\r\nbodies, or, in other words, die; for he said that they were shut\r\nup in celestial bodies, and that, nevertheless, the God who\r\nmade them promised them immortality,—that is to say, an\r\neternal tenure of these same bodies, such as was not provided\r\nfor them naturally, but only by the further intervention of\r\nHis will, that thus they might be assured of felicity. In this\r\nhe obviously overturns their assertion that the resurrection\r\nof the body cannot be believed because it is impossible; for,\r\naccording to him, when the uncreated God promised immortality\r\nto the created gods, He expressly said that He would\r\ndo what was impossible. For Plato tells us that He said,\r\n\"As ye have had a beginning, so you cannot be immortal\r\nand incorruptible; yet ye shall not decay, nor shall any fate\r\ndestroy you or prove stronger than my will, which more effectually\r\nbinds you to immortality than the bond of your nature\r\nkeeps you from it.\" If they who hear these words have, we\r\ndo not say understanding, but ears, they cannot doubt that\r\nPlato believed that God promised to the gods He had made\r\nthat He would effect an impossibility. For He who says,\r\n\"Ye cannot be immortal, but by my will ye shall be immortal,\"\r\nwhat else does He say than this, \"I shall make you\r\nwhat ye cannot be?\" The body, therefore, shall be raised\r\nincorruptible, immortal, spiritual, by Him who, according to\r\nPlato, has promised to do that which is impossible. Why<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_532\">[Pg 532]</a></span>\r\nthen do they still exclaim that this which God has promised,\r\nwhich the world has believed on God's promise as was predicted,\r\nis an impossibility? For what we say is, that the God\r\nwho, even according to Plato, does impossible things, will do\r\nthis. It is not, then, necessary to the blessedness of the soul\r\nthat it be detached from a body of any kind whatever, but\r\nthat it receive an incorruptible body. And in what incorruptible\r\nbody will they more suitably rejoice than in that in\r\nwhich they groaned when it was corruptible? For thus they\r\nshall not feel that dire craving which Virgil, in imitation of\r\nPlato, has ascribed to them when he says that they wish to\r\nreturn again to their bodies.<a id=\"FNanchor_1025_1025\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1025_1025\">[1025]</a> They shall not, I say, feel this\r\ndesire to return to their bodies, since they shall have those\r\nbodies to which a return was desired, and shall, indeed, be in\r\nsuch thorough possession of them, that they shall never lose\r\nthem even for the briefest moment, nor ever lay them down\r\nin death.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-835"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"39b0bc2128333b38a655460a038d43e80a165e2aa1f000689bd13cf4e057c710","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_1025_1025","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1025_1025","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1025_1025\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1025_1025\"><span class=\"label\">[1025]</span></a> Virg. <i>Æn.</i> vi. 751.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_1025_1025","text_sha256":"aed162b0475a14142fb28a799a6b66d35df0afa195613cfc5273bd6e37a5c689","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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